Man is iron, and rice is steel, not eating one meal can make you feel panicked with hunger!
The woman, upon hearing the scholar’s words, pointed at his nose and started cursing, "You’re almost sixty, yet you’re so poor that you don’t dare to have a child. If you delay any longer, will you still have a chance? With the family being this poor, how would you raise a child if you had one? How old am I now? How many more years can I wait? Are you trying to force me to divorce you and find another man to have a child with?"
"Do you even know that you’ll end up having no descendants?"
"If anyone holds us accountable in the future, I’ll just take all the blame. I absolutely won’t let it involve you," the woman’s voice was full of determination.
"Suzhen... I..." The middle-aged scholar sighed helplessly, facing his tear-filled wife, and at last, he flicked his sleeves helplessly, "Do whatever you want."
Chen Sanliang, feeling utterly ashamed after being scolded by his wife, finally walked into the house with his head down, leaving Suzhen and Zhang Chen standing in the courtyard, where Suzhen silently wept.
At this moment, Zhang Chen felt very cheerful, having thought that the situation had reached a dead end, where even in such a dire state, Chen Sanliang wouldn’t break the aristocratic rule, but unexpectedly, his wife spoke out, giving Zhang Chen hope.
Suzhen wiped away her tears, her eyes swollen like peaches, and turned to Zhang Chen, "If you just want to read and write, rather than making a study of becoming a saint, I can teach you. If you don’t mind, then stay."
"Disciple greets Master." Zhang Chen, hearing this, responded quickly, hitching up his robe and directly kneeling before Suzhen.
"Absolutely not! In this world, it’s always men who take disciples. Where is the reason for a woman to do so?" Suzhen hurried forward to help Zhang Chen up upon hearing this.
"Master is wrong in saying so. Teaching and resolving doubts know no gender. All things in Heaven and Earth, Yin and Yang compliment each other. Why can men take disciples but women cannot? Women can hold up half the sky, they’re no weaker than men." Zhang Chen argued quickly.
Han Suzhen was taken aback by this, gazing at Zhang Chen with astonished eyes, "I didn’t think you possessed such insight."
She didn’t expect Zhang Chen, who never went to school, to have such wisdom, truly a worthy seedling.
"Get up, today’s incident must have made you laugh. You’ve seen the situation in your master’s house; it’s almost unbearable." Han Suzhen’s voice was full of lament.
"Master’s words are wrong; where in this world is the married couple that doesn’t argue?" Zhang Chen stepped forward to offer comfort.
Han Suzhen felt a bit down upon hearing this and waved her hand at Zhang Chen, "I’ll teach you knowledge, but once you leave this household, you can’t say you’re my disciple."
Saying this, Han Suzhen feared Zhang Chen might think too much and explained, "It’s not that I look down on your background, but your grandmaster and I have many enemies in the Northern Land. They may not be able to do anything to me, but if they find out about you, they will surely ruin you. Besides, you seem extraordinary; you’re bound to make your own path. If word gets out that you apprenticed under a woman, you’ll be mocked by everyone under the heavens."
Han Suzhen is an honest person. After tidying up the courtyard slightly, she took out pen, ink, paper, and inkstone and said to Zhang Chen, "Come sit, I’ll teach you to read and write."
At this moment, Zhang Chen took out a scripture obtained from Huangli Temple and admitted frankly to Han Suzhen, "The reason for becoming a disciple is to recognize the characters on this. Can Master start with this book and teach me all the characters in it?"
The Huangting Scripture has long been everywhere, every disciple in the Daoist Temple has a copy, and even the followers have it at home as an offering.
Han Suzhen reached out to take the scripture, showing a hint of surprise. She instantly recognized the origin of the scripture: "Is this the scripture of Yellow Heaven Dao? It seems to be the great principles passed down by it."
"Does Master know Yellow Heaven Dao?" Zhang Chen asked.
Han Suzhen replied, "Just a group with ulterior motives; are you a disciple of Yellow Heaven Dao?"
Zhang Chen nodded slightly, not withholding, "By a twist of fate, I had to join Yellow Heaven Dao."
"It’s best to get out as soon as you can; I’ve heard about Yellow Heaven Dao, and it always feels odd. Anyway, let’s start learning characters today." Han Suzhen beckoned Zhang Chen to come over and began flipping the book: "We should start with the first character. The pace will depend on how many characters you can memorize in a day."
Zhang Chen listened carefully and prepared his brush and ink. Han Suzhen pointed to the large character on the cover of the scripture and said: This character reads ’Huang’.
Zhang Chen quickly took a thin brush, dipped it in ink, and annotated the character ’Huang’ with phonetics.
Recognizing characters is difficult, but with phonetics, as long as you annotate, the next step is to study carefully.
"What are you doing?" Han Suzhen asked in surprise upon seeing the strange symbols Zhang Chen had marked.
"These are disciple-created symbols; there are only sixty-three of them. Once you master them, you’ll be able to recognize all characters in the world," Zhang Chen said with a smile.
He wasn’t secretive, just phonetic markings, nothing extraordinary.
However, the phonetic system is one of the greatest inventions under Heaven.
"You created this writing system? Once learned, you can recognize all the characters in the world?" Han Suzhen was stunned, her eyes filled with disbelief.